Stats for December 13, 2018

Origin: Venice Free Dock

Destination: Don Pedro State Park

Distance: 21.5 miles

Speed: 7.6 mph

Time on the Move: 2 hours and 50 minutes

We heard about a great little spot through the Looper grapevine and it ended up to be one of our favorite spots yet! Don Pedro State Park was located right off the ICW, and nothing about the “anchorage” looked all that great–you couldn’t see the beach and the actual anchorage wasn’t very protected from the ICW.

However, with some great directions by those who came before us, we had a great spot. We had to dinghy in to the actual park through a LONG narrow channel through the mangroves. We could see to the bottom and enjoyed watching starfish pass by underneath us. Once we got to the park, there was a dinghy dock where we tied up and a short walk to the actual beach. There were even bathrooms and a pavilion in case rain came on unexpectedly.

The kids found TONS of shark teeth here and even some sand dollars. Again, this stretch of beach was mostly deserted, but there were a few beach combers on our second day there. There were so many shark teeth and sand dollars it was hard to stop looking for them because they were everywhere! We probably found 100 sand dollars and a couple hundred sharks teeth.

Both Mike and I enjoyed jogging on the beach while Tobin and Hayley searched for shells. I did plenty of daydreaming about the houses at the end of the state park that overlooked this beautiful stretch of sand with very few neighbors. Zillow searches were done and dreams about the future continued to grow.

We loved this great stop and I highly recommend it to others passing through the area! One of our top Florida stops so far, for sure!

Stats for December 15, 2018

Origin: Don Pedro State Park

Destination: Aqua Palm Harbor

Distance: 1.7 miles

Speed: 6 mph

Time on the Move: 18 whole minutes!!

We started to realize that our access to a car to provision for the Bahamas would be ending soon because we were moving further and further away from my mom’s location in Sarasota. She was coming back to us to bring Colin back to the boat after taking him for his turn to spend time at her house. It was also supposed to be a very windy day, and we weren’t sure the protection from the wind would be that good in this area, paired with possible rain storms. It didn’t seem like the best day to retrieve someone from shore by dinghy, really. We decided to move basically across the channel to Aqua Palm Harbor Marina so we could take advantage of Grandma’s car and child watching services one last time before heading further south. Of course Grandma was on a schedule, so this would have to be a quick trip.

We headed for Dollar Tree first and stocked up on all kinds of shelf stable milk, food products, pizza crusts, and various cleaning supplies. I never knew I could spend over $100 at the dollar store!!

Then we headed to Walmart Liquor store for beer, wine, and some booze. Apparently beer runs close to $50 a case in the Bahamas, so we wanted to be sure to stock up. 3 months is a long time in paradise!!

Last we went to Walmart to stock up on paper products, meat, and snack foods, mostly. It seems chicken, fish, bread, and dairy is more readily available in the Bahamas, so we focused on the stuff that we are super picky about, or the items we know are very marked up. It was quite a trip!! Thank goodness we didn’t bring an extra kid along with us, because no one/nothing else would have fit in the car!!

After all the unloading, thanking grandma, and sending her on her way, we took a provisioning break to go to the pool. Aqua Palm has a great pavilion area right next to their pool and hot tub. It was a fun place to play and burn off some energy!!

That night we continued our game of food tetris. Where does one fit $700 worth of alcohol and $1000 worth of food on an already packed boat?! We started trying to figure that out and we were surprised at how many little cubbies and hiding places we could find. Perhaps the bigger trick will be the ability to find what we need when we need it down the road.

Thanks for reading and following along on our adventures!!